


let the heartbeat take me home

by whoaaitsmichele



Category: Roswell New Mexico (TV 2019)
Genre: M/M, rosa is alex's bff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-03
Updated: 2021-01-03
Packaged: 2021-03-12 17:07:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,421
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28513938
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whoaaitsmichele/pseuds/whoaaitsmichele
Summary: prompt: i wrote my crush a note except i started it with 'dear you' and my friend stuck it into the wrong locker and now you think i have a crush on you
Relationships: Michael Guerin/Alex Manes
Comments: 22
Kudos: 87





	let the heartbeat take me home

**Author's Note:**

> this is my longest one shot fic???? i'm oddly proud lol. 
> 
> enjoy!
> 
> & thank you to @wle0416 for being my wonderful beta yet again!
> 
> title taken from david cook's song 'heartbeat'

“Rosa, please?” Alex begged, staring at his best friend. She blew a bubble with her gum, waiting for it to pop loudly before she started chewing it and spoke up.

“Why can’t you do it?” She asked, raising an eyebrow as she held a small folded up piece of paper in her hand.

“You know why,” he whispered through clenched teeth. 

Unable to look away and say no to his puppy dog eyes, she sighed.

“Fine, but only because you look like you’re going to shit yourself at the idea of delivering the message yourself.”

Alex rolled his eyes before leaning forward to kiss her on the forehead. “Thank you! You’re the best!”

Rosa smirked. “I know, I know. Now, what number is his locker again?”

“A54, it’s near the science labs. I have to run to gym class. The last time I skipped to hang out in the music room, Coach made me run 2 miles at the track.” 

“Yeah, yeah. Don’t be late. I’ll deliver it for you.” She hugged him, knowing that Alex needed it. She always made sure to hug him at least once a day, knowing he wasn’t going to be getting that kind of love and affection at home from his own family, especially now that Greg was gone.

“Thank you again,” he whispered into her ear before he took off towards the locker room.

\--

“Are you sure you put it in the right locker?” Alex asked her a week later, biting his lip as he stared at Forrest Long from across the cafeteria. 

“Yeah, yeah.” Rosa stole a tater tot off his tray, knowing his mind was miles away. Smirking, she popped it in her mouth before throwing another one at his head.

“Hey!” He turned to her, pulling the tater tot out of his hair. The gel he put in his hair was now covering the tater tot. He made a disgusted face, tossing it in the trash can near their table a second later.

“Just because Forrest Long is the only other openly gay guy in this school doesn’t mean he’s going to give you the time of day,” she stated, knowing that saying that would upset Alex, but he needed to hear the truth. 

Alex had a crush on him since he was a freshman when both she and Forrest were sophomores. It was now two years later, and Forrest hadn’t so much as looked at Alex, but her friend wasn’t giving up. She didn’t know if he was just stupid or oblivious, but he was determined.

Alex looked at her with sad eyes before shrugging. “At least giving him the note has to make him acknowledge my existence, right?”

“Sure, sweetie,” Rosa replied, the tone of her voice showing she didn’t believe what she just said. Forrest didn’t even give her the time of day, and they were lab partners in Chemistry. The guy was too busy writing what looked like bad poetry in a journal while she was busy handling the chemicals.

She went to reach over to grab another tater tot before she felt a sharp slap on her hand. Pulling back, she winced and looked back at Alex.

He smirked before grabbing his plastic fork from his tray and shaking it in her direction.

“No more tots for you, you heathen.”

She let out a shocked gasp, and his laugh in response made up for the little bit of pain on the back of her hand.

\--

Alex stared at his phone, frowning, giving up hope that he’d get a text or call from Forrest Long before he felt the phone vibrate, and he quickly looked at his phone to see it was just Rosa. Sighing, he opened up the chat to see her message.

**Rosa: Any message yet?**

**Alex: No :(**

**Rosa: I’m sorry.**

**Alex: Thanks for your help though. I knew it was too good to be true that he’d respond.**

As he closed his messages and put his phone on silent, a new message popped up from an unknown number.

**Unknown number: I got your note.**

Alex froze before opening the chat with Rosa again.

**Alex: ROSA. HE RESPONDED!!!!!**

**Rosa: WHAT EXPLAIN**

**Alex: IDK. I JUST GOT A TEXT SAYING THEY GOT MY NOTE. WHO ELSE WOULD IT BE?!**

Alex went back to the other message and let out a breath. He then slowly typed out his response. 

**Alex: Who is this?**

**Unknown number: Michael Guerin**

_SHIT._

She put his “Dear You” note in Michael Guerin’s locker, Roswell High’s resident genius? Alex did think he was attractive, both in brains and beauty, but he knew Michael only dated girls, so he focused on Forrest. 

Alex looked at his phone and didn’t know whether to be sad at the idea of Forrest not caring enough to respond or at the fact that Forrest never got the note to begin with. 

**Michael Guerin: You still there?**

Alex bit his lip, afraid of being rejected by not one but two guys in the span of a week.

Forrest didn’t even know of his existence, and Michael seemed to be very straight.

**Alex: Yeah, still here. I’m sorry about the note. You can just rip it up and ignore it.**

Alex watched as the bubble popped up in the chat, seeing Michael typing and suddenly felt overwhelmed. He threw the phone on his desk and jumped on his bed.

Grabbing his pillow, he screamed into it. He let out all his emotions of being an outsider in the school, in this stupid town, not knowing what his future looked like with his dad breathing down his neck about the air force after graduation. He wanted to be happy. He wanted to have a boyfriend. An eventual husband. A family. He did _not_ want to go into the air force. He was always afraid by the way his dad talked that he didn’t have a choice in the matter. He needed to be a Manes man. 

If that was the case, at least he wanted a small ounce of happiness before he went to war. 

He thought that happiness could be with Forrest. He was cute, he was gay, and he wasn’t afraid of the bullies. He could stand up to his homophobic cousin Wyatt. Alex was always in awe of him. 

Alex could vaguely hear a faraway buzzing as he screamed, but his screams were abruptly interrupted by Flint banging on the wall. 

“Stop screaming you big baby!” Alex groaned, knowing that if he responded, his dad would somehow hear his retort and come running up the stairs to give him a talking to. A talk that would typically involve bruises appearing on Alex’s arms and legs by the use of Jesse’s belt. 

Alex went quiet before he grabbed the phone. He noticed that there was no text from Michael, but from Rosa. 

Alex frowned and then opened up the text from Rosa. 

**Rosa: So what happened?**

**Alex: Rosa, you put my note in Michael Guerin’s locker, not Forrest’s.**

**Rosa: Oops.**

**Alex: You don’t sound very sorry.**

**Rosa: I know how you have looked at Michael Guerin…**

**Rosa: I figured if I took a chance, maybe Guerin would actually respond to you. Forrest isn’t a bad guy, but his emo poetry isn’t for you.**

**Alex: He’s only dated girls Rosa. Plus, he seemed to have ghosted me after his last text to me. He started typing and stopped. Probably figured he would save me the embarrassment if he didn’t even have to respond.**

**Rosa: Do you want me to send you a playlist to cry to?**

Alex let out a bitter laugh.

**Alex: Yes please.**

\--

The next day at school, after dealing with his father yelling at him at breakfast to start thinking about joining an ROTC program for high schoolers, Alex drudged up the stairs to the school as the first bell rang. After listening to Rosa’s depressing but much-needed playlist, he didn’t get any sleep, and then his dad’s yelling made everything worse. He had a headache, and he just wanted to lay in bed and sleep.

Instead, he was putting his bookbag in his locker and grabbing his books for his morning classes when he felt a presence next to him. 

He closed his locker and came face to face with Michael Guerin.

“Come to gloat, Guerin?” Alex asked, exasperated and tired. 

Michael raised his eyebrow. “Gloat about what?”

“You can tell all your friends about the gay kid who asked you out, even though you’re obviously straight…”

Michael frowned, noting Alex’s sarcastic tone of voice before he spoke up.

“I was actually coming over to talk to you about the note and last night.”

“I know you don’t want to talk to me. It’s fine. I’ll live. I know finding someone in this godforsaken town was too good to be true for me. Thinking that my note was going towards the actual gay guy in school and not accidentally towards a straight guy I’ve been pining for was just the cherry on top.” 

Alex didn’t seem to realize how much word vomit was coming out of his mouth. Michael was trying to understand what Alex was saying. He seemed to be on a roll, but Michael wanted to stop him before he spilled all his innermost secrets.

“Alex!” 

The other teen froze, and his eyes went wide at what he just revealed. Before he could speak up again to apologize, Michael gave him a warm smile.

“So let me get this straight. You wrote a note to Forrest Long, who I know is the only other openly gay guy in this school, but instead, you put it in my locker, and you think I’m straight, and you...pine for me?”

Alex was left gaping at him like a fish before he realized he needed to talk.

“To answer your questions...yes, I asked Rosa Ortecho to put it in Forrest’s locker, but she knew he wouldn’t give me the time of day and that I had a crush on you that I was ignoring because I’ve only seen you date girls and I don’t _pine_.” Alex’s face was beet red, and Michael let out a laugh.

Alex closed his eyes, knowing that he shouldn’t embarrass himself further, and went to walk away.

He felt a small tug on his arm and couldn’t help but flinch. Michael immediately let go, but not before speaking up.

“I loved your note.”

Alex paused, taking in Michael’s expression. He didn’t look like he was lying.

“What? But -”

“I’m bisexual, Alex.” Alex took in that fact, but it still didn’t explain what happened the previous night.

“But last night, you didn’t respond to my text. I thought you didn’t want anything to do with me.”

“I live in my truck, and my phone died, as did my phone charger. I had to borrow Isobel’s this morning. That’s why I didn’t answer.”

“So you do want to date me?” Alex whispered.

“Yeah,” Michael huffed out a laugh. He grabbed Alex’s hand and ignored how much Alex was shaking. 

Alex looked down at their hands and then looked up, taking in Michael’s curls and golden brown eyes, letting out a breath he didn’t even know he was holding.

“Now I don’t know about you, but I think we should skip the first period, cuddle under the bleachers and listen to the new Danger At the Picture Show album.”

“You listen to Danger At The Picture Show?” Alex asked, astounded.

Michael grinned. “No, but I looked you up on Myspace at the library and saw that you did. I went and borrowed the album from there and begged Max to help me get it onto my shitty iPod. I thought if everything went well after I spoke to you that we could listen to it.”

Alex could only stare at Michael, not believing that his one-note could make Michael go out of his way to do this. 

Michael licked his lips before speaking up. “So what do you say?”

Alex could only nod before Michael looked around the now empty hallway and gently pulled Alex towards the school's front door. He could hear Alex’s black combat boots on the floor and his soft laughter following him as they walked out the doors and towards the football field’s bleachers. 

As they got closer, Alex noticed a blanket on the grass and turned to look at Michael. 

He watched as Michael’s cheeks turned a light shade of pink, and Alex smiled. “You really came prepared.”

“I had high hopes I could win you over.” They sat down on the blanket, trying to make themselves comfortable.

Alex raised his eyebrow. “Oh, really?”

“I mean, I think we’re perfect for each other,” he stated matter of factly. “I always felt a pull towards you but was afraid to make a move.”

“You? Afraid?” Alex asked, shocked. Michael could only nod.

“I’m a troubled foster kid who lives in his truck,” Michael lifted his hands and used air quotes when he said troubled, knowing how actually false that was, but the town thought otherwise.

“I have a homophobic dick for a father, so we both have our problems,” Alex grabbed Michael’s hand, rubbing his thumb over the top of it. “But the foster homes and my home life don’t define us. We can be each other’s home.” 

Michael nodded, knowing what he needed to say next. “I’ve also never dated a guy before.”

Alex snorted before covering his mouth and nose in embarrassment. “As you can see, neither have I. Especially not if I ever did that.” 

Michael beamed. “I think it’s cute. I think you’re cute.”

“You do?” Alex asked shyly and watched as Michael scooted closer to him. 

“I do. Very much. I also think I want to kiss you.”

“You can. Kiss me, I mean. I definitely won’t say no,” Alex responded enthusiastically. 

Michael smiled warmly before gently grabbing Alex’s face and bringing his lips to his. 

The kiss sparked something inside them both, and Alex gripped Michael’s curls as they leaned into each other, Alex giggling into the kiss as he fell back against the blanket. He’d never felt like this before. 

Happy. Truly happy. 

_I like this feeling_ , he thought to himself as he continued kissing Michael. He felt Michael’s heartbeat against his chest, where his own heart was beating fast as Michael continued to kiss him, and it brought him peace. It brought him _home_.

He would definitely need to thank Rosa later.

**Author's Note:**

> comments are appreciated!


End file.
